


A Night to Remember

by kvaerx



Series: Kaaras Adaar Worldstate Snippets [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Accidentally catching fire, Drunken Shenanigans, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27890776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kvaerx/pseuds/kvaerx
Summary: The Advisors go looking for the Inquisitor after he and The Iron Bull got very drunk the night before.Chaos ensues.
Series: Kaaras Adaar Worldstate Snippets [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064879
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	A Night to Remember

“Where is the Inquisitor?”  
All three of them had been thinking the same thing and finally someone had given the thought a voice. They’d been waiting all together in the War Room for more than an hour now. At first it had seemed normal enough, they all arrived at different times and some where later than others. Of the three of them the waiting was easiest for Josephine, as she carried work with her wherever she went.  
“He’s been late before,” Cullen said. “But never this late.”  
Josephine looked up from her writing and turned to look at Cullen. On instinct, he ducked away from the candle. “It is rather unusual.” She turned back and Cullen relaxed slightly.  
The three of them shared a concerned look as they considered what to do next.  
“Last night, he was in the tavern with The Iron Bull and his Chargers,” Leliana said. “If we’re going to search for him, we should start there.”  
Cullen nodded. “Shall I fetch him? Or would the two of you like to come along?”  
“The three of us together could damage his reputation if others were to know,” Josephine said. “We might seem like parents going after a disobedient child.”  
Leliana laughed and walked to the door. “Come now, Josie. I want to see what trouble the Inquisitor has gotten himself into now.”  
The three of them walked to the tavern in silence. Several of the denizens of Skyhold looked at them, but turned away after a moment and went back to their work. The morning air had a chill to it, a product of the quickly approaching autumn. The whole courtyard had a new color to it, from the sign outside Herald’s Rest to the changing colors of the leaves.  
Inside, the tavern seemed rather dim when compared with the bright sunlight and the cloudless sky of the courtyard. Several patrons sat at the tables on the edges of the room. The open door drew the attention of several. When they saw the three advisors standing on the threshold, they turned away.  
In the middle of the room, where the fire burned merrily in the fireplace, were the unconscious bodies of two Qunari. Or rather, one Qunari and one Vashoth. Neither were wearing boots. One of Kaaras’ had a still mostly full bottle stuck into it. Strewn around the two were so many empty bottles and tankards that it seemed a small army had been there.  
Krem had pulled over a chair to sit and watch them as they slept. When the advisors stepped inside, he stood up. “You’re not here about the goat, are you?”  
“The… goat?” Cullen asked.  
“No? Well, that’s good.” Krem’s face brightened. “In that case, can I help you with anything?”  
Cullen stood there saying nothing, face screwed up in confusion. After a moment, Josephine pushed around him.  
“We came for the Inquisitor,” she said.  
Krem raised a hand to point to the floor in front of the fire. “He’s there.”  
As they looked, Kaaras shifted. He rolled over, on top of several of the empty bottles. There was a muffled crunch as they broke beneath his weight. The broken glass didn’t seem to cut him though. But whether that was due to the thickness of his leather jerkin or his inebriated stupor was hard to tell.  
“What happened to them?” Josephine asked.  
“The Chief found some Qunari alcohol. After that, well… They got drunk. Very drunk.”  
“I’m sorry,” Cullen said. “Can you explain ‘the goat’?”  
“There was a man who brought it. Gleda, I think. The goat, not the man. His name was Sam,” Krem said. “There was a competition… They were already very drunk at that point.”  
From beside them, Kaaras shifted again and mumbled something incoherently. He reached out with an arm, still mostly asleep and very sluggish, and knocked over the boot near his head. The bottle of alcohol inside fell with a muffled thud on the wooden planks.  
“Cullen,” Leliana said. “Perhaps, with your newfound skill, you could extinguish the Inquisitor?” She pointed to Kaaras where he lay on the ground, but remained in the doorway, away from the others.  
Cullen looked over at the floor to see that Kaaras had unconsciously moved his foot too close to the fire. The flames must have started on his sock. Now, they were burning on the lower part of his pant leg. A sudden fear gripped Cullen, fueled his memories of last week when he had been set on fire. He pushed past it and went to beat at the flames. He started at the knee, trying to keep the fire from spreading to Kaaras’ chest and the bottle of alcohol that he’d crushed. As he did, he was careful to keep his shawl well enough away. He had no desire to catch fire again.  
Chaos seemed to erupt behind him as the others in the tavern realized the Inquisitor was on fire. He was aware of Josephine trying to locate water, understandably difficult given that they were in a tavern. Krem was shoving away the remaining bottles to ensure they didn’t catch fire. The other patrons were watching with a mixture of interest and panic.  
The fire was painfully hot, even through Cullen’s callouses, but it was still easier than the last time he’d had to put out a fire. Extinguishing another person was better than trying to extinguish oneself. He succeeded in suffocating the flames on Kaaras’ leg, and sat back on his heels with a sigh.  
That was when the Inquisitor chose to rejoin the world. He opened bleary eyes and almost immediately closed them again with a groan of pain.  
Cullen left Kaaras there, with his marked hand thrown over his eyes, as he tried to calm the tavern. Most of the patrons returned to their drinks and conversations after only a moment or two. More curious glances found their way to the floor in front of the fireplace now. Drunkenness to the point of unconsciousness wasn’t uncommon, but inadvertently lighting oneself on fire seemed to be.  
Josephine was still looking for water when Cullen found her upstairs. They returned to the common room together to see that Krem had disappeared, but Kaaras and The Iron Bull were both sitting up. Kaaras was idly poking at the singed fabric of his pant leg. He looked up at them.  
“Was I late for the meeting?”  
“Late is perhaps not the most accurate description,” Josephine said.  
“You missed it,” Cullen said. “We came to find you.”  
Kaaras pressed a hand to his head in a combination of regret and hangover. “I’m sorry.”  
“Chief, I found them!” Krem called down from the second floor. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, Cullen saw he was holding what appeared to be a mage’s staff and hauling a goat behind him with a rope lead.  
The Iron Bull laughed. He pulled the half empty bottle from the boot and took a drink before passing it to Kaaras. “Inquisitor, we must do this again.”

**Author's Note:**

> Josephine has definitely set Cullen on fire at least once. The man wears a shaggy rug.


End file.
